Folded napkin



May 28, 1935. A, E. COFRIN 2,002,691

. FOLDED NAPKIN Filed Jan. 16, 1953 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 K LWJ I PatentedMay 28, 1935 FOLDED NAPKIN Austin E. Cofrin, Green Bay, Wis

Application Janiiary 16, 1933, Serial Ho. 52.05? 3 Claims. (01. 206-57);

a invention relates to; folded sheets as napkins or the like, and has asan object, the provision of a ool-npact fold having tabs which may begrasped by the user in a dispensing operation.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a fold that will becompact whereby a napkin may be reduced to a size at present desired byrestaurants where the space occupied by dispensers is a consideration.

It is a further object of theinvention to provide a fold that will besubstantially of uniform density throughout and still have the compactform desired.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a fold that will havetabs made up of folded portions of the original sheet whereby to givethe desired strength to avoid tearing of the sheet when the fold isabstracted from the supply.

Further objects of the invention will appear from the followingdescription when read in connection with the accompanying drawingsshowing illustrative embodiments of the invention, and wherein:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of the sheet to be folded with the fold linesindicated thereon;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a partially folded sheet;

Fig. 3 is a detail perspective view of an end of a modified form of theshowing of Fig. 2;

Figs. 4 and 5 are respective views of the completely folded article;

Fig. 6 is a plan view of an unfolded sheet of different size; Fig. 7 isa perspective view of one stage of the folding of the sheet of Fig. 6;and

Fig. 8 is a perspective view of the final fold of the sheet of Fig. 6.

It is to be understood that the sheet shown in plan view of Fig. 1 may'be a single thickness, or where the original sheet is double the sizeshown, the sheet may be doubled-and folded midway of its width as uponline 10, as indicated in Fig. 3.

The first step in the folding of the sheet to produce the fold of theinvention is the inward folding of the edges of the sheet'upon lines II,I! to bring the edges substantially at the lines l3, II to the formillustrated in Fig. 2. The next folding operation is the folding of theends of the thus resulting form first upon line I5 to superpose theportion l6 upon the portion IT, as indicated in Fig. 2, and the thenfolding of the form resulting from the first folding of the sheet uponlines H and l2,-,upon the [8 to. bring the portion 19 into positionsuperposed .upongthe pQ ion,-l6.. 1 i In) {11 It is preferred in thefolding of napkins of the usual size that the portion It shall be, asindicated, of less length transversely of Fig. 1 than the portion l1,whereby the edge 20 will fall short of the line l8 when I6 is superposedupon [1. However the position of the line 15 may be fixed to some extentin accordance with the size desired in the finished fold;

The final step in producing the fold of the invention is the folding ofthe form of Fig. 2 in its folded position upon the lines I3, l4substantially coincident with the positions occupied by the edges l0 and2| to positions such as shown in either Fig. 4 or Fig. 5, thus providingtabs superposed upon the body of the fold which may be readily graspedby the user in abstraction of the sheet and which, because they areformed of several thicknesses and without raw edges, will afford thenecessary strength to permit of the abstraction of the fold from adispenser without tearing the sheet.

It will be understood that Figs. 1 and 6 represent a sheet that has beenonce folded as provided by the invention and then extended so as to bearthe crease lines caused by the folding operation.

Figs. 6, 7, and 8 illustrate the folding, according to the invention, ofa sheet intermediate in size between the sizes of sheet of Figs. 2 and3, the sheet of Fig. 3 being twice the size of that of Fig. 2. The foldof Figs. 6, '7 and 8 therefore omits the preliminary folding on lines IIand [2 of Fig. 1, but is in all other respects similar to the fold ofFigs. 1-4 and may be similar to Fig. 5, as will be obvious.

In the form of Figs. 6-8, the sheet of Fig. 6 is first doubled byfolding on the line 22. The doubled sheet is then folded as at 23 upon aline shown as less than one-third the length of the doubled sheet fromthe righthand end of Fig. 6 to superpose this end upon the body portion24. Afterwards the lefthand end of Fig. 6 is folded on line 25 to coverthe righthand end of Fig. 6. The fold is completed by folding on lines26, 21 to superpose the tabs 28, 29 upon the central body. Fig. 8 showsthe tabs 28, 29 lying upon the same side of the body portion to agreewith the form of Fig. 4 providing tab edges which may be grasped byeither the right or left hand of the user.

The fold provided by the invention will be seen to be of substantiallyuniform density throughout its extent and therefore a package made upfor delivery will be the same thickness and density throughout and willreadily yield itself to firm packaging.

Minor changes may be made in the physical embodiments of the inventionwithin the scope of the appended claims without departing from thespirit thereof.

I claim:

1. A sheet folded to provide a longitudinally elongated body; thenfolded upon transverse lines substantially one-third of the length ofsaid body from each end thereof to provide a transversely elongatedbody, and lastly folded upon lines substantially one-fourth of thelength of the transversely elongated body from'the opposite ends thereofupon lines perpendicular to said transverse lines to provide a finalfold presenting tabs superposed on said body with their edges lyingclosely adjacent the center of said body.

2; A sheet folded to provide an elongated body of at least twothicknesses throughout its extent; then folded upon transverse linessubstantially one-third of the length of said body from each end thereofto provide a transversely elongated body, and lastly folded upon linessubstantially one-fourth of the length of the transversely elongatedbody from the opposite ends thereof upon lines perpendicular to saidtransverse lines to provide a final fold presenting tabs superposed onsaid body with their edges lying closely adjacent the center of saidbody.

3. A sheet having its edges folded inwardly on lines parallel with saidedges and each spaced therefrom substantially one-sixth of the width ofthe sheet; then folded transversely to the first named folds upon linessubstantially onethird of the length of the sheet from the ends of theform resulting from the first fold; opposite edges of the form resultingfrom the last named folding operation folded upon lines substantiallycoinciding with the original margins of the sheet in their first foldedposition to provide tabs superposed upon the body of the final form withtheir edges adjacent the center line thereof. v

AUSTIN E. COFRIN;

